


Let Me Paint You a Picture

by rosewaterwinter



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, No Spoilers, One Shot, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27003331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosewaterwinter/pseuds/rosewaterwinter
Summary: Marianne falls on the battlefield, and Ignatz begs her not to go.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Ignatz Victor
Kudos: 18





	Let Me Paint You a Picture

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something super short I wrote some months ago, figured I might as well share it! I never thought I'd pair Marianne and Ignatz together, but their supports are just too precious.

“Let me paint you a picture,” is what Ignatz says to Marianne as he gathers her slender frame up in his arms. He speaks softly, and the battlefield noise all but fades away as he focuses on her face.

“When the war ends, we’ll build a home together on the eastern shores of the Alliance where the sunsets are the most beautiful. We’ll have a stable for Dorte, and room for any other animals that you wish to have stay with us. We’ll plant a garden together, and I’ll paint pictures of each and every plant and flower that grows there. We can take trips to the market twice a week, and cook our favorite meals for dinner each night. It’ll be just you and me Marianne, and we’ll be so happy. As long as we’re together, I’ll make sure that nothing in this world will ever make you feel so bad again. I promise that we’ll make each other smile each and every day, and that I’ll never leave you.”

She smiles up at him as he speaks, a small thing just barely gracing her lips that means so much.

“And if we ever grow tired of it being just the two of us, we can have children. The Goddess will bless us with children of our own to raise together. They’ll help us out around the house, and we can teach them to take care of the animals, and they’ll make art and be kind and love just like we do. We’ll support them in all their dreams, just like we do for each other. We’ll be the best parents we can be, and we’ll raise a happy family together.”

Marianne is smiling again, but she looks farther away than ever. Like she’s already on her way to another place — one he could never reach from here.

Ignatz pulls her body into his chest, holding her close to him. He’s careful with her still; his touch is gentle, but his grip is firm. He won’t let her go.

“Please, Marianne.” He’s begging her now, begging her not to go, burying his face in her shoulder so she can’t see how close he is to crying.

His voice shakes.

“You are the most beautiful woman that I have ever laid eyes on. I have never met someone so kind, so conscientious, so caring. Your presence in my life was a gift given to me the day we met, and has been a gift every single day after. The five years we spent apart, I never went a day without thinking about you. I’m convinced that you were brought here by the Goddess herself.”

He sputters a little as he tries to hold back the sudden flow of tears, but it’s too late now.

“Marianne, you are my greatest blessing. You are the best thing about my life, and you have been since I met you. Please, please don’t leave me. You can’t go. You can’t.”

He mutters the words _stay_ and _don’t go_ over and over again as if they were a prayer, as if just asking her to stay will be enough to make a difference. There’s nothing else he can do.

“Ignatz.” She finally speaks, and her voice is very soft. He has to hold her face so close to his just to make out what she’s saying.

“If I return to the Goddess, I’ll always be with you.”

“No,” he cries out again, maybe a bit too loud this time, because Marianne looks like she winces a little bit at the sound. “Marianne, you have to understand that’s not what I want. I want you here with me, today, tonight, and in every moment after. I know I’m being selfish if the Goddess is calling for you, but I won’t be able to live without you. I can’t imagine ever picking up a paintbrush with you gone; I wouldn’t know how to make things beautiful anymore. I can’t imagine smiling again. I can’t imagine anything at all.”

Though she is still weak, Marianne looks at him. For the first time, she really looks at him, staring into his eyes with a furrowed brow as if she could see straight into his soul. Ignatz freezes up a bit at the intensity of her gaze, but he knows he meant every word he said with every fiber of his being, so he just looks back at her.

“Ignatz,” she starts again. “I want you to take my hand.”

“Okay,” he says, and grasps her slender fingers with his. Her hands are so, so cold.

“Now place it over my heart.”

Ignatz wants to start crying again. He’s so sure that this is it, that he’s making her more comfortable so he can pass her to the Goddess. He wants to refuse, to fight back, but in all the years he’s known Marianne, he’s never heard her ask for a single thing. The very least he can do is respect her wishes, so he places her hand over her heart, but keeps his there, too.

Marianne shuts her eyes, and he feels helpless. All he can do is watch, to stay with her for as long as he can. He can feel himself breaking into pieces, but it’s the least he can do for her — and he would do anything for her.

She stills, and Ignatz has to close his eyes for a moment. It’s too hard to watch. As they shut, he feels warmth under his palm, a new sort of stirring, and involuntarily jerks back from the unmistakable sensation.

_Magic._

He hurriedly opens his eyes again, and sees that Marianne’s hand is glowing with the color of a common healing spell. His heart surges in his own chest as he watches hers begin to glow.

The spell builds, then fades, and after a moment that feels almost too still, Marianne’s eyes slowly flutter open. She meets his gaze for the second time that day, and smiles for the third. 

He opens his mouth to speak, but no sound comes out. All he can do is stare at the girl in his arms.

She giggles at his gaping, and in that moment he’s sure it’s the most beautiful sound he’s ever heard.

Then he’s crying again, and thanking the Goddess, and apologizing all at once because he doesn’t know what else to do but she’s still here and he’s just so _thankful_.

In the next moment, she looks sheepish and she tells him “It wasn’t the Goddess who kept me here. I wanted to stay. For you.” And suddenly her laughter is the second best sound in the world, because those words have become the first.

All at once she’s lifting herself up to meet him, no, to meet his lips with her lips. 

He squeezes his eyes shut as he kisses her, but somehow Ignatz has never seen colors like this before in his life.


End file.
